Mercury, February 9, 2013

This is the first opportunity I have had in quite a while to see Mercury.  It's also a planet I've never imaged.  I  decided to try imaging this evening as the western sky was relatively free of clouds.  I drove to a site a little west of town and set up the ETX 125.  It was a cold evening and setup was far from fun, but after sunset, I was able to see Mercury quite clearly; I could not see Mars, which is quite close to it in the sky.  These two captured images are 600 frame captures, with the best 20% stacked.  The phase of the planet is clearly visible. Seeing was very poor and the planet was scintillating wildly.